After the opening exchanges between Pinkeron and Goro, someone switched on the mics for the singers and the voices are much clearer. And that's a good thing because this is a fine performance. Stella had sung a new production of Butterfly to great acclaim earlier at the Met in '58. She indulged in a lot of extraneous sobbing even after she was supposed to be dead. She does some of that here as well. Ghione stretches out the final chords in a way I've never heard before (possibly to accomodate stage business?). I think I hear some sobs from Stella, but I may be mistaken. Someone (Andy?) fixed the major problem with this recording: somehow Stella's "Un bel di" went missing from the original tape, but that crucial aria is here on these discs (it may be a splice from the Met broadcast). At any rate, Stella is a great Butterfly, sobs or not. Though she certainly had the note, she skips the high D-flat option in her entrance music. The audience cares not at all and awards her with enthusiastic applause.Labo and Taddei are extremely good in their roles as are Tota Igarzabal as Suzuki and Carlos Giusti as Goro. The performance sounds like there was some rehearsal and orchestra, chorus, and soloists are together most of the time.The sound is listenable and pitched correctly. There is some acetate noise at the end of Act One, but it is not too bad.Recommended to all Stella fans. One can hear why she was so admired!

This recording on first sight seems to be a 'must have' version, with three of the most beautifully individual voices of the 50's.Stella never recorded BUTTERFLY commercially and her georgeous voice seems perfect for the role. Unfortunately the voices are badly recessed and the whole thing seems to have been recorded by someone with a primitive recording device too near the orchestra. Nuances of performances are hard to assess, but there is no question all three artists deliver the goods: Stella sings beautifully with round fruity tone, Labo is an ardent Pinkerton, and Taddei's beautiful big expressive voice is everything one would want as Sharpless, but hearing through the depressingly bad balance between voices and orchestra is hard work. This is only a memento of what was no doubt a wonderful BUTTERFLY.

For your information, here is the rest of the cast:Goro: Carlos GiustiYamadori: Hector BarbieriComissario: José CreaOfficial: Juan FoscoloLo Zio Bonzo: Guerrino BoschettiKate: Carmen de la Mata